3. Methodology 5

3.1 Research Questions 5

3.2 Participants 5

3.3 Instruments 5

3.3.1 Pre-test and Post-test 5

3.3.2 Class Observation 6

3.4 Procedures of Instruction 6

4. Results and Discussion 7

4.1 Results 7

4.2 Discussion 8

5. Conclusion 9

5.1 Major Findings 9

5.2 Limitations 9

5.3 Recommendations 9

References 10

1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background

With the development of globalization, the spread and share of information, resources, technology and education are mostly based on English, thus English teaching is a part of great significance for people around the world. A good command of English, however, which means mastering the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, is not easy. Twenty six letters as it is made up of, there are three main elements of English: phonics, vocabulary, and grammar. If we regard learning English as building a mansion, phonics would be the ground, vocabulary the building materials, and grammar the blueprint. Therefore, for English beginning learner, it is of great importance to lay a solid foundation of phonics and own a large vocabulary. Under this circumstance, Phonics has been put forward. 

Actually, Phonics was come up with in America in the 1790s, and has been prevailing since 1990s. With the educational reform in the North America paying great attention on the basic knowledge and skills as well as English reading and writing capacity, a large number of schools have teaching English with Phonics, whose positive effects have been acknowledged widely around the world. At present, primary schools in Canada, Australia, North Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao are exploring Phonics, and he research findings indicate that Phonics is good for vocabulary learning for those who speak English as first or second language.

In China, the teaching practice reveals that it is of great difficulty for students to spell and read words by themselves. New English words are usually introduced to students by students reading after teachers. The consequence of this is that students rely too much on teachers during the English learning process. Moreover, because of a lack of knowledge of the basic pronunciation and spelling rules, a large quantity of students has no idea of the relations between pronunciation and spelling, which leads to the situation where students memorize English words mechanically and inefficiently.

In recent years, Phonics has spread to China. Many English training organizations start to put this method into practical teaching, and relevant teaching materials are published. But the effect of Phonics in English as a foreign language teaching still needs to be observed.

1.2 Significance of the Study

The teaching method of Phonics has been come up with for a long time at abroad, with a lot of powerful research and teaching practice (the objects are children) about it. Most of the teaching experience, however, was based on the fact that English is their first or second language, as a result, some of the teaching methods and teaching approaches are not suitable, to some extent, with English as a foreign language teaching in China. Moreover, in China, the appearance of Phonics, a new teaching pattern of second language or foreign language, does not own a long history and a powerful impact, about which there is few relevant theoretical fruit and empirical research. So generally